Strategic Plan for the Environment sets the city's course for future initiatives

KITCHENER - Years of public consultation to gauge what environmental issues are of most concern to citizens formed the basis of the city's new and improved Strategic Plan for the Environment, which was adopted earlier today by the development and technical services committee.

The plan is intended as a living document, to be periodically updated for use by city council, city administration and the city's environment committee in identifying, prioritizing, budgeting for and monitoring various environmental initiatives across all city departments.

Its mission is to ensure an environment that is ecologically sound and supportive of the health, safety and well-being of its residents by identifying and implementing policies and practices which reflect community values and impact positively on the environment.

"The environment is a civic priority that this council is committed to devoting its full attention to," said Mayor Carl Zehr. "We have marked that commitment in a number of ways over the past couple of years, with new initiatives such as the Local Environmental Action Fund (LEAF); the gold LEED standard we recently set for the construction of our new large buildings; and the ISO 14001 environmental standard we've established for our fleet operations. Updating our Strategic Plan for the Environment is a complement to all of those initiatives, and it will serve to help us develop even more ways to preserve our planet."

Based on the public opinion the city has received since 2005, a number of focus areas have been incorporated into the updated plan and will generate the development of environmental initiatives and priorities for the city's administration, as well as the community at large.

Those areas include:

* To develop and maintain an ecologically diverse open space network which incorporates typical naturally occurring landscapes, significant natural features, and the urban forest, all of which embody our valued natural heritage;

* To ensure the integrity and long-term sustainability of the city's surface watercourses and municipal water supply through the protection and enhancement of essential hydrological, hydro-geological, and ecological functions using best management practices, conservation strategies and public education;

* To improve air quality and, thus, to minimize the associated risk to public health;

* To develop and maintain a land-use planning process which allows the city to coordinate and implement its growth related projects and policies in a sustainable and cost effective manner;

* To achieve continual reductions in per capita energy consumption and to promote a sustainable energy use lifestyle through public education and the increased use of renewable energy sources and new technologies;

* To reduce resource consumption and pollution at city facilities and properties through the use of renewable resources, the implementation of effective monitoring programs, and the employment of efficient operating practices including state-of-the-art waste management;

* To promote an environmentally healthy lifestyle through the development of strategies to increase environmental literacy, the implementation of effective monitoring programs and the introduction of cooperative public outreach initiatives.

"Different areas of environmental concern have arisen in recent years for the citizens of Kitchener, most notably those connected with deteriorating air quality and related issues involving the closer integration of our natural and built environment with public health," said Barbara Steiner, the city's senior environmental planner. "Those concerns have played a large role in the formation of our main environmental objectives for the coming years."

Next steps

City staff will now take the main areas of focus and develop an implementation plan to:

* Identify all current and proposed environmental initiatives for ongoing coordination through the plan;

* Develop a mechanism for budgeting and coordinating environmental initiatives;

* Develop monitoring methodologies;

* Develop a clear and understandable way of reporting environmental progress to ensure accountability internally and to the public.

The city's Strategic Plan for the Environment, which was first approved by Council in 1992, is periodically updated and used to guide the development of current and future city environmental activities and initiatives.

Public consultation around the most recent update to the plan began in 2005 when the city surveyed Kitchener residents, in an attempt to better understand the community's environmental concerns. The consultation process continued through 2007 with five public workshops.